Edible Ecuador
| from $8,695.00 USD per person

Edible Ecuador
| from $8,695.00 USD per person

A 14 day journey to nourish the soul! Contact us today if you would like to book this once-in-a-lifetime experience in Ecuador!

Sitting on the equator between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador may be the smallest Andean nation but it’s packed with
the most startling contrasts of scenery. With its astounding
biodiversity, impressive historical legacy, stunning colonial
architecture, bustling highland markets and diverse mix of people –
blacks, whites, indigenous and mestizo – it’s easy to see why this
friendly and exotic destination is regarded as a microcosm of South
America. During this journey, you will explore the culinary highlights
from the highlands to the rain forests, and of course, to the Galapagos. You will also spend several days in an indigenous community in the
Amazon, volunteering with Free the Children in their efforts to help children break the cycle of poverty.

This 14 day itinerary includes:

* Maximum 12 people

* Luxury transportation, including airport pick up & drop off

*10 nights in 4 and 5 star accommodations

* 3 day culinary tour in and around Quito

* 4 days in Amazon (with culinary classes)

* 5 days in the Galapagos

* Tour of indigenous markets

* 3 days of volunteering at Free the Children

* Breakfast lunch and dinner every day

* 4 night stay at incomparable Finch Bay Hotel

* Transportation and internal flights

* Two bilingual guides

Airfare to and from Ecuador, park
entrance fees at the Galapagos ($110 USD) and individual activities (eg:
massages) in each city are not included. We can help you get the best flight deals to Quito!

From $8,695 USD per person, double occupancy or $10,570 USD per person, single occupancy

Day One: Arrive Quito

Upon your arrival in Quito, a
Travelteerism host will be waiting in the arrivals area. It is a long
flight from North America, and you will likely be quite tired. The good
news is that you wont be jet lagged if you’re coming from the North!
After collecting your luggage, you will be transferred to your hotel and
give assistance with check in.

Stay at Casona de La Ronda, or similar

Day Two: Mitad del Mundo, Otovalo Market & Bizcochos

After an early
breakfast, you will depart from Quito to Otavalo where you’ll stop at the
famous “Mitad del Mundo” (Half of the Earth), where you can quite
literally have one foot on either hemisphere. Then, you will visit one of
the largest indigenous textile markets in the country in Otovalo. Then you’ll proceed to Molino San Juan, an ancient mill converted to
museum/restaurant, where a local chef will walk us through a “hands on”
program on how to prepare an Ecuadorian lunch, as well as the
traditions behind each preparation. After lunch, you’ll head back to
Quito via Cayambe, a small town traditionally known for its rose
plantations as well as bizcochos and queso de hoja: a type of savory
biscuit accompanied by a very delicate milk cheese, both very
traditional foods of the area. You'll stop at one of the typical shops
to taste these delightful treats.

Stay at Casona de La Ronda, or similar

Day Three: Market Visit and Traditional Cooking Class

Your day begins with a
visit to the newly renovated Santa Clara Municipal Market to see and
learn about the seasonal fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices and
assortments of grains and seeds. Then, you’ll travel to Quinta Tres
Marias where a local chef will teach you how to make three different
traditional Ecuadorian soups: Ajiaco (potatoes, eggs and milk-based soup
with avocado and chochos, a typically Andean legume full of nutrients);
Mote Pata, a traditional recipe from the city of Cuenca (delicate pork
broth scented with cumin and oregano); and Biche de Pescado, a precious
coastal gift from the province of Manabi (peanut-based soup with local
fish, yucca, plantain, maize, cilantro and spices. For dessert, you
will experience helado de paila, an artisanal ice cream made with copper
bowls and salt.

Stay at Casona de La Ronda, or similar

Day Four: Historic Quito and Closed Door Dining

This will be a full day of cultural
attractions in 500-year-old Centro Historico in Quito, a UNESCO Cultural
Heritage site, visiting churches, colonial buildings and cobblestone
streets. Lunch will be served in a traditional restaurant followed by a
visit to La Ronda Boulevard to learn old arts and crafts and taste
traditional canelazos and different types of sweets known as colaciones. You will finish our day with a beautifully prepared dinner at a local
chef’s apartment located in one of the oldest streets of the
neighbourhood. This is a closed-door restaurant concept with a fixed-set
menu that promises to impress its guests. Dinner includes a
complimentary chocolate testing with top quality Ecuadorian chocolate
brands. (eg. Pacari, Kallari, Republica del Cacao).

Stay at Casona de La Ronda, or similar

Day Five: Into the Amazon Basin

Today you will travel to the Amazon to spend the next 4 days volunteering and learning about Amazon cuisine with Free the Children,
a Canadian and American NGO that helps children break the cycle of
poverty. Get your camera ready; this journey is one for the books! En
route from Quito you will climb to heavenly elevations in the highlands,
with awe-inspiring views of snow-capped volcanoes in this active
geological area. Winding down mountain roads towards the Amazon basin
brings tremendous change in your surroundings, as you descend into the
lush cloud forest, home to rare wild orchids and the largest number of
bird species in the world. Get comfortable – this trip will take
approximately 7 hours.

Jungle Cruise River Expedition

Hop aboard for a quick, 20 minute
outboard motor canoe ride up the Rio Napo, an Amazon River tributary
situated in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Feel the
cool breeze on your face and watch the vibrantly coloured birds fly
above as your driver and cultural expert gives you an insider’s view of
Amazon River culture.

Minga Lodge Arrival and Orientation

Alli shamushca capay – welcome! Step off
the boat at Minga Lodge just in time to take in your first spectacular
Amazonian sunset over the Rio Napo. Your lush tropical surroundings will
be glowing pink and orange as you snack on local treats like plantain
chips and yucca fritters, washed down with a glass of chilled guayusa
tea.

Explore Minga Lodge, tucked into the
jungle overlooking the river, and follow a Me to We team member along
winding pathways and raised walkways to your cottage nestled into the
natural hillside environment.

Meet with the team to learn about Free
The Children’s unique Adopt a Village (AAV) model and how it works
within the unique local environment. Free The Children developed the AAV
model, which relies on five key pillars to break the cycle of poverty
and achieve long-term community development: Quality primary education,
health care services, alternative income projects, safe/clean drinking
water and sanitation systems, and agriculture/food security.

Spanish Class

In this playful, educational and
optional group session, you will learn key Spanish phrases that will
help to foster your connection with new friends in the community.
Challenge your senses with blindfolded taste tests and other interactive
teaching tools, then partner up and practice your greetings with a
fellow traveler.

Day Six: Volunteer and Indigenous Farming

Rainforest Excursion

Rise and shine! Before breakfast,
explore the trails of a nearby 300 hectare forest reserve, where you
will get your first taste of exploring the Amazon rainforest. Journey
onwards and hike deep into primary and secondary rainforest, where, if
you are lucky, you may see a myriad of flora and fauna, including
toucan, Long- tailed Potoos, gargantuan cebo trees and countless species
of insects, spiders and snakes.

Volunteering in the Community

As the community develops, priorities
and tasks will shift, creating new opportunities all the time. Grab a
friend, some new tools, and try your hand at something new – be it
digging a well, laying the foundation for a health center, or whatever
else the community may need most that day.

A Day in the Life

There’s no better way to understand the
ways of local people than by walking a mile in their shoes. Roll up your
sleeves and join a local farmer to help carry out some of their daily
activities, such as planting seeds, fetching water from the river and
harvesting crops. You will even have the opportunity to taste some
homegrown fruits of Ecuador.

Day Seven: Volunteer and Amazon Kitchens

Volunteering in the Community

Continue the work you started and try
changing roles and building new skills – meeting new locals and learning
about the unique needs of their community.

Kichwa in the Kitchen

After a visit to the local market where
you will have the opportunity to pick out some ingredients, join our
jungle guides for a traditional cooking lesson. Here you will transform
exotic and unusual local ingredients into delicious traditional dishes
like fish wrapped in palm leaves. Enjoy the fruits of your labour for
lunch!

Braided & Beaded: Alternative Income Initiatives in the Amazon

Sit with a group of skilled female
artisans to learn how they generate income through traditional jewelry
making. From sourcing to production, every step towards creating these
uniquely Ecuadorian red, black and white jewelry is local, with many
pieces made from nuts and seeds collected in the rainforest. Local women
also produce more modern loom beaded bracelets and items featuring
traditional South American motifs.

Day Eight: Volunteer and Chocolate Making

Volunteering in the Community

Continue the momentum on the build site.
As you work, remember to take many water breaks and chat with the
community members working alongside you.

A Sweet Trip to the Cacao Farm

The production of cacao represents one
of the main sources of income for the region’s farmers. Meet with a
cacao farmer who supplies beans to a French chocolatier, then sweeten
your afternoon as you learn how to make chocolate from scratch using
cocoa beans back at the lodge.

Day Nine: Back to Quito

Today, you will say goodbye to the
Amazon and its amazing people and way of life. You will begin the first
leg of our journey as we entered Minga – by boat. Expect about a 2 hour
boat river ride towards Coca, where we will board our flight back to
Quito. The picture to your left may be one of your last visual memories
of this incredible place.

Stay at Casona de La Ronda, or similar

Day Ten: To the Galapagos

Upon arrival, you will be met by the Finch Bay Hotel’s naturalist
guide and accompanied directly to the hotel’s yacht where you will have
lunch on board, while the yacht sails to North Seymour Island.

North Seymour was lifted from the ocean
floor by a seismic event, and its origins as a seabed give the island
its low, flat profile. Cliffs only a few meters high form the shoreline,
where swallow-tailed gulls sit among the ledges and rocks. A tiny
forest of silver-grey Palo Santo trees stand just above the landing,
usually without leaves, waiting for the rains to burst into bloom.

This island is teaming with life! You
might have to give way to a passing sea lion or marine iguana;
blue-footed booby nests sit beside the trail where mating pairs perform
their courtship dance. Further along, the rocky shore is interspersed
with white sand, while large flocks of pelicans mass for a dive-bomb
feeding-frenzy, painting a tableau from ages long past for us. The trail
turns inland to reveal the largest nesting site in the Galapagos of the
“magnificent frigate bird.” These huge, dark acrobats have two-meter
(6-foot) wingspans, and males, with puffed up scarlet throat sacks, sit
precariously perched in low bushes to watch over their equally large
chicks.

After the visit, the yacht sails to
Itabaca channel, from where you cross by bus faster over Santa Cruz
Island to reach the south shore (42 km by bus is shorter and faster,
than 50 km by boat), where the Finch Bay Hotel is located.

Day Eleven: Highlands of Santa Cruz and Coffee Cooperative

After a relaxed breakfast, you will leave Academy Bay by bus 15 km up to the lush highlands of Santa
Cruz Island. From there a short drive across the farming area will lead
us to El Manzanillo, a site recently opened to visitors at the northern
edge of the Giant Tortoise Reserve.

Manzanillo is on the natural path tortoises take every year as they either migrate to higher moist locations during the garúa
season (June-September), or when they descend to the warmer lowlands
during the wet season. Year round, tortoises can be seen grazing on the
surrounding vegetation, or wallowing in muddy banks or in a small
red-coloured pond (impressively colored by surface red pond-weeds). The
area is teeming with life: chirping vegetarian-, small-tree, large-tree
and woodpecker finches, mockingbirds and flycatchers, as well as ducks,
herons and gallinules make this an exciting morning visit.

After lunch, you will visit a small
cooperative, where coffee, sugar cane and cocoa beans are grown,
harvested and prepared – all organic and sustainable. We have the chance
to taste the products while learning about the artisanal way to burn
island spirits! We then return to the Finch Bay Hotel to enjoy the its pool and beach.

Day Twelve: Santa Fe and Ceviche Class

Santa Fe offers one of the more
beautiful and sheltered coves in the archipelago. Its turquoise lagoon
is protected by a peninsula of tiny islets forming an ideal anchorage.
The island lies to the southeast of Santa Cruz within sight of Puerto
Ayora. Like North Seymour, Santa Fe has been uplifted, and you can see
where underwater lava once cooled off.

A wet landing on a sandy white beach
brings us into contact with one of the many sea lion harems. Bulls vie
for the right to be Beach Master, while smaller males masquerade as
females and make stealthy mating moves. Galápagos hawks are often easily
approached, perched atop salt bushes.

The giant prickly pear cactus found here
live up to their name, with tree-sized trunks! Our goal is to spot
one of the large species of land iguana, native to Santa Fe. Beige to
chocolate brown in color with dragon-like spines, these huge iguanas
truly resemble dinosaurs.

An indigenous species of rice rat also
inhabits the thickets, and lucky hikers can spot harmless Galápagos
snakes. After the hike, there is nothing more inviting than a swim in
the calm waters of the bay, a great snorkeling opportunity with diverse
marine life.

In the afternoon, the Finch Bay Hotel will host a special ceviche making course, made from local fish caught that very day.

Day Thirteen: Divine Bay and Charles Darwin Research Station

This is the magic of Galápagos: a short
distance away from Academy Bay and the bustle of Puerto Ayora, lies the
quiet and wildlife-rich Divine Bay. Every morning, hundreds of herons
cross Divine Bay on their daily foraging trips, to return before sunset
to perch amid the trees. Noddy terns use the natural burrows in the
cliffs for nesting, while Galápagos brown pelicans prefer the evergreen
mangroves, under the watchful eye of non-breeding blue footed boobies
perched along the cliffs. Beneath the sea, sea turtles graze on sea
weed, hundreds of reef fish species swim about the lava crevices, and
young reef sharks and rays employ the brackish streams as havens from
large predators while they mature.

You can explore this lovely cove by boat
while more adventurous guests could take the tandem, sit-on-top kayaks
straight from the hotel’s beachfront. The morning’s visit includes
snorkeling on a calm, but active, sector of the cove. This is next to a
wooden dock we use to explore Punta Estrada. A dry landing and a short
walk (0.5 km) will lead us to the south shore of the island, to a small
beach called “Playa de los Perros” (Dog Beach). This is a great place to
see intertidal organisms and learn about marine iguanas in their
nesting sites. Also, there’s a nearby natural terrace from where young
white tipped reef sharks can be observed from above as they swim about
the lava crevices.

After the morning visit you return to the Finch Bay Hotel
for lunch. Afternoon visit to the Charles Darwin Research Station and
the giant tortoise breeding program, with time to enjoy the town, or the
hotel’s facilities.

Day Fourteen: Return Home

After breakfast you will leave the Finch Bay Hotel
and stop at the Twin Pit Craters, a geological depression where
Scalesia trees, ferns, mosses and orchids can be seen. You will then fly
back to the mainland, in time to catch your evening flights home.

This is a sample itinerary of what we can create for a trip top Ecuador, if it sounds like something you are interested in just get in touch for more information! Click "Contact us" above or call and ask to speak to an Adventure Travel Specialist at 604.736.7447